Pac-12 Football: 5 Takeaways from April 21 spring games

Pac-12 football had four spring football games shown on April 21 featuring Washington, Washington State, Oregon and UCLA. What did we learn about each team?

With Utah, USC, Stanford and Arizona playing their spring games on April 14, and Oregon State and Cal on April 28, the big showcase day for the Pac-12 Conference came April 21. The UCLA Bruins, Oregon Ducks, Washington Huskies and Washington State Cougars took the field for their spring games this past Saturday.

The favorite to win the conference in 2018 is the Washington Huskies. Washington head coach Chris Petersen has been the trendsetter both in regards to longevity on campus (he’s only behind Mike Leach and Mike MacIntyre in tenure) and production as Washington was in the College Football Playoff in the 2016 season. The Huskies enter the 2018 season ranked 4th overall per the S&P+ ranking system and are the cream of the crop in the Pac-12.

The Oregon Ducks are on to their third full-time coach in three seasons but Mario Cristobal is a holdover from the Willie Taggart year and was able to keep Jim Leavitt in Eugene to run the defense. Leavitt’s 3-4 defense was the real highlight of the Ducks 2017 campaign.

The UCLA Bruins have hired Chip Kelly as their head football coach and he’s already making waves by recruiting in former Michigan Wolverine Wilton Speight to play quarterback. Mike Leach’s Air Raid offense and a new defensive coordinator were on display in the late afternoon game.

Here are my five takeaways from the April 21 spring games out west.